Star Wars - Knights of the Old Republic

Heart of the Force

Aurek Xan

Xan is a former Republic Army Colonel and veteran of the Mandalorian War. He used to head up the Aurek Unit, a team of high-risk special operations commandos. Now? I think I heard he's a bounty hunter or something.

Description:

Template Type:

Bounty Hunter

Character Name:

“Aurek” Xan

Player Name:

NPC

Species:

Zabrak

Sex:

Male

Age:

45

Height:

1.9 m

Weight:

65 kg

Physical Description:

Tall, imposing, and always, always armed. Wears a heavily modified Mandalorian power armor with a custom helmet and several built-in weapons and defense systems. He has a lot of battle scars, including a few broken horns and a horizontal slash across his chin. He has a tattoo of the Aurebesh symbol “Aurek” on his right bicep, as well as the names of all the soldiers that died under his command.

Personality:

Brash, gutteral, and disorganized. He has practically no social graces, and sees little use in them. In fact, it is conjectured that he turned down a promotion and quit the Republic Army because he was trying to avoid having to wear a dress uniform.

Objectives:

First you make the credits, then you get the power, then you get the girls. Now that the Jedi Civil War started, Xan wants to do whatever he can, behind the scenes, to help defend the Republic from the Sith.

Bio:

During the Mandalorian War, Colonel Xan was leader of the Aurek Unit, a team of specially trained special operations commandos. As Republic Commandos, Xan and his Aureks were often dropped deep into hostile territory with little-to-no backup and given mission goals that other Republic Army forces deemed too costly or dangerous (or just plain impossible to achieve). In the entire course of the war, the Aureks never failed a mission. However, their numbers dwindled from 17 to 5 by the end of the campaign. He was offered a promotion to Brigadier General for his service throughout the Mandalorian War, but he abruptly requested instead an honorable discharge, and left the Army for what he described as “blacker pastures.”

Xan quit just in time to avoid becoming embroiled in the tragic final battle of the Mandalorian War, the Battle of Malachor V. He was already busy preparing for his retirement, purchasing a beat-up old third-hand Rendili Superlight and doing some custom work on it in preparation for his new job. It was a part time thing, really. Just something to keep from getting bored. Xan adopted “Aurek” as his nickname and became a bounty hunter.

Wearing a heavily modified Mandalorian power armor adorned with the latest in Republic weaponry and defense technologies, including a stealth field generator and a short-distance jump-pack, “Aurek” Xan began his new part-time gig, spending most of his bounty cash on lavish accommodations, heavy drinks, and, let’s face it, whores.

One of the best parts of Xan’s ship, the Rook, was its top-of-the-line sensor equipment. It allowed Xan to track the most minute transmissions and energy signatures across great distances, planning his capture and containment ops in relative ease and on his own time. However, all that changed when he intercepted a radio transmission from a strange, ancient probe droid, then received a comlink message from Jedi Master Sas’k. Sas’k was an old friend from before the Mandalorian War, and the last time the two of them spoke, Xan mentioned that he owed Sas’k a favor next time they bumped into one another.

Xan went to meet Sas’k aboard the Broadsword, an experimental mobile Jedi Academy, where he was hired by the headmaster, Master Ko’Dora Vadis, to help Sas’k and some of his students track down the source of an ancient unidentifiable probe they encountered in the Roche Asteroids. Xan took the job, mostly as a favor to Sas’k, but also because it was more interesting than most of the stuff he had been doing lately.

After a brief search, Xan picked up the direction where the now self-destructed probe droid was transmitting its signal. The Rook brought Xan and the Jedi students to a crashed Republic Hammerhead Cruiser on a massive asteroid the size of a continent. There was a signal originating within the derelict ship, but no life signs. Xan’s interest was piqued, so when Sas’k said he was going in for a closer look, the Rook followed closely behind.

Soon, Xan, Sas’k, and the students were within the hull of the Republic ship. They discovered that the cruiser picked up another strange probe droid of the same general description as the one the students encountered a few days earlier. After they took the droid into the ship and placed it in the aft cargo hold, most of the cruiser’s major computer systems malfunctioned, all the droids went haywire, and the drive core overloaded, exploding and causing the ship to crash-land on the asteroid.

After a few scrapes with some of the remaining malfunctioning Republic Sentinel War Droids, Xan and the students made their way into the cargo hold, but they were too late to avoid the probe starting a self destruct sequence that would surely kill them all. What was worse, an Exogorth (Space Slug) suddenly decided to get hungry for derelict Republic capital ships. Xan, Sas’k, and the students escaped, but Sas’k had to abandon his fighter because he didn’t have time to get all the way back to it. So, it was a tight, uncomfortable ride back to their ship, and they still didn’t have much by the way of answers.

He collected his bounty and parted ways with Sas’k and the rest of the students. One of them, Daken Rao, reminded Xan a lot of himself at his age. He was a bit fastidious and “cleanly” for Xan’s liking, but he was a good kid. Maybe, if the Jedi thing didn’t work out, Xan thought, Daken wouldn’t mind joining up with Aurek, making a few bucks as a bounty hunter.

About a month later, Xan noticed a number of strange transmissions crisscrossing on supposed “black-out frequencies”, encrypted and hidden so that nobody was supposed to hear a thing. Another great thing about the Rook: its frequency filtration and decryption system. Xan discovered that several of the students, including Daken Rao, were taken aboard a rogue pirate ship captained by someone named Riis. They were being held for ransom, supposedly, but a false transmission was sent, tricking the Jedi students into thinking the headmaster of the Broadsword had abandoned them and left them for dead.

Xan contacted Ko’Dora Vadis, who revealed that Master Sas’k was among the students when they were captured. Xan determined via several intercepted transmissions that an unknown force “rescued” the students as a way to lure them into joining… the Sith! This was a recruitment scheme all along! Unfortunately, it seemed that two of the students fell victim to the ruse, but two others, Daken Rao and Erall Diggs, managed to reserve their judgment long enough to get dropped off on Nar’Shadaa. Xan contacted Vadis again, informing her where she could pick up two of her students. The bounty hunter then asked what the Jedi would be willing to pay for the live capture of the pirate who set all this up.

Xan determined that Riis’s ship was using an experimental cloaking device, but that in order to devote the power needed to use it, the ship had to shut down most of its major systems, including propulsion and shields. After locating the ship, Xan offered to transmit the coordinates of the ship to the Broadsword and take part in the capture and containment op, for a price.

Upon executing the op, Xan discovered that Sas’k survived the pirates’ attack and was readying his escape attempt when the Broadsword and the Rook arrived. Xan succeeded in capturing and delivering the pirate, a Twi’lek named Sevanna Riis. The captain of the Broadsword congratulated Xan on his successful bounty and asked, once again, if he would reconsider his resignation from the Republic military, offering him a position as his first officer. Xan laughed, spat on the floor, and said “Frag that. Just give me my damn credits.”

That was the last time anyone saw Xan. After the start of the Jedi Civil War, he went underground. There are rumors that Master Sas’k has been in contact with him, but those rumors are as yet unsubstantiated. Who knows what role “Aurek” Xan has to play in the Jedi Civil War.